A family's nightmare home experience in Florida. Home's flaws devastate family

[madfloridian]

This is a tragic story. A lovely Winter Haven home with unbelievable problems.

From the Winter Haven Newschief:

Winter Haven family's picture-perfect house turns into nightmare


George Aycrigg / News Chief, file The Garrison family Joseph, left, Daphne, Danielle, Jacob and Joe in front of their dream home that is falling down due to wood rot. Monday, December 28, 2009.

They did all the right things folks should do when buying a home.

WINTER HAVEN - Nestled among magnolia trees, the stately traditional home at Cypresswood Golf and Country Club appears to be a safe haven of tranquility with plenty of room for children to play under the watchful eyes of their parents. But beneath the picture-perfect facade lies shifting walls, a crumbling foundation and black mold, bringing sickness and heartache to Joe and Daphne Garrison and their children, who purchased the house - and called it their "dream house" - nearly four years ago.

...."Since purchasing their home for $386,000 in 2006, the Garrisons have spent more than $50,000 in an attempt to fix at least 27 problems, ranging from holes in the garage foundation and beside the fireplace in the attic to rotten soft wood under the kitchen sink and cracked floor supports. The house is filled with mold and mildew, stemming from improper ventilation under the home. Contractors hired to make repairs found daunting problems with the house - missing crawl space vent covers, torn air ducts under the home, doors that don't open and shut properly, and air conditioner duct work not up to code. The family has grown accustomed to squeaks and crashes as mirrors fall off walls, sinks separate from walls and water stains mysteriously appear on ceilings and walls.

Now the Garrisons not only find themselves owing more on their home than it is worth, they must find a way to pay the estimated $150,000 it will take to shore up the home's foundation.

The family says they did all they should do as buyers.

The Garrisons maintain that, as buyers, they did everything one is supposed to do when purchasing a home, including having it inspected, which was done by Chuck Partlow of Lake Wales-based Polk Building Inspectors, and having it WDO (wood destroying organism) certified, completed by All-Kill Pest Control in Lakeland.

Reading the rest of the article and seeing how no company is held accountable is very upsetting. All the inspectors involved are allowed excuses. One company involved did not even have insurance to cover their mistakes. I thought that was required in Florida.

The Garrisons received a letter from Partlow's lawyer, S. Braxton Wiggs of Gray Robinson Attorneys at Law, faxed June 4, 2009, in response to their request for information about insurance carried by Polk Building Inspections.

"Please be advised there was and is no such policy," Wiggs wrote in what was the last correspondence received on Partlow's behalf.

Here's the worst part.

In October, the Garrisons hired Applied Forensic Engineering to inspect the home and provide a report. This report not only documents the presence of wood rot but the fact that it had been accumulating since before the Garrisons purchased the home.

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. They need this guy

http://www.hgtv.com/holmes-on-homes/show/index.html

[DesertFlower]

8. he's great. nt

[AllentownJake]

2. Florida is ground zero for a whole bunch of bullshit

I believe the chinese dry wall issue has the epicenter there.

[madfloridian]

9. Yes, it is. There is little regulation of developers at all.

[tsuki]

3. Where were the county building inspectors when it was being built?

[NYC_SKP]

5. Doin' Hookers and Blow with Chuck Partlow at the All-Pest Control offices. n/t

[Dr.Phool]

16. They were probably harrassing somebody who was playing by the rules.

There's a restaurant and bar where our Cleveland Browns Backers Club meets every Sunday or whatever to watch the Browns lose. And we raise some money and food for the ASPCA and Alzheimers Foundation.

A guy bought the place two years ago. He upgraded the kitchen to improve the food six months later. It took them 3 months to inspect the new gas lines he had installed and they almost ran him out of business before he could reopen the kitchen.

If he had done it without pulling the permits, they would have never known the difference.

[tammywammy]

4. What a horrible situation

I hope something happens to help that family.

[Brickbat]

6. That home looks like it was thrown up in three days. Also, why wouldn't you insist on a steel-frame

home in Florida? (Or anyplace, for that matter.) Not blaming the victim at all -- mold can be almost impossible to find and is devastating. But buying a newer home -- especially one built during the housing boom -- calls for a ton of caution, IMO.

[1monster]

10. Buying a home anytime in Florida requires caution. Our home, bought new, has had many problems.

Replacing the outside siding around the fireplace revealed a fireplace that must have been an afterthought. No insulation around, under, or over the fire box. The fire box itself was resting on a two by four frame that had one piece of the frame comeing up from the bottom which did not meet the top piece of frame coming down from the top. They are about a half inch apart. The builder took care of that problem (on both sides mind you) by driving a nail at an angle to hold them together.

The frame itself was sitting on NOTHING. (I asked, "How the hell did this thing ever pass inspection!?!" I was answered, "It didn't." Obviously.)

I expect my heating and air conditioning costs to go down somewhat since we have now insulated the fireplace. We also made some imporvements on the fire box frame and the frame is not resing on a floor.


Over the years, we have replaced siding on various places of the house. We have yet to find any moisture barriers anywhere. Sometimes we find taht there are spaces that don't have insulation either.

In 1993, "The Storm of the Century" blew up from the Bahamas all the way up the East Coast into Cananda. That storm blew most of the shingles off two of the three roofs of the house (It's one of those modern houses that are all angles). A contractor gave us an estimate. A friend's husband glanced at the roof and said, "That isn't enough to fix your roof. Your roof has a bow in it."

Sure enough the roof had a curve in it.

The estimate doubled. While up there repairing the problems, the roofer discovered that alternating rafters were not tied down in any way. Had the roof had eaves (and thank God it didn't) it would have gone flying off in the wind along with the shingles.

We've had the house for thrity-one years now and have fixed many of the problems the house had, but I expect to find more as we do standard maintenance on a wood-frame house.

And that is another thing. Don't buy wood-frame houses in Florida. Concrete block, poured concrete, prefab concrete, stainless steel roof, and, if you can get it, steel frame!

And hire your own INDEPENDENT building inspector.

[jeff47]

17. 'cause steel has it's own issues

Steel framing isn't an ideal material in residential construction. We're not talking the I-beams you see in skyscrapers - the studs are engineered to be only as strong as wooden studs.

The main reason to use wood is it's much more forgiving as the structure settles - and all structures will settle and settle unevenly.

Secondarily, if you live in an earthquake-prone area, you want wood framing. Metal framing doesn't return to it's original shape after being deflected by an earthquake.

Lastly, the same problems that cause wood rot also cause steel to rust. Sure, there's a coating on the studs, but the screws used to assmble the studs & fasten the drywall, as well as any cut ends, break the coating. With wood, it's possible to remove just the rotten material and splice in new wood (takes some advanced carpentry but it's not too hard). Rusted steel can't be fixed.

Anyway, with this particular home, the three entities who were negligent were the builder, city's building inspectors and the termite company. The builder did shoddy work and the city's building inspector signed off on the shoddy work. It's up to the termite guys to find wood rot - that's what they're paid for. The home inspector should have caught some of the relatively minor issues (missing vents, bad A/C ducts, etc) but the major issues seem to be a crappy foundation and lots of rot.

As for mold, the main culprit there is the paper on the surface of the drywall. Most of the molds we need to worry about from a health perspective love paper and aren't too fond of wood. There's some newer products on the market with either fiberglass or no paper at all, but they're more expensive and harder to finish.

[jmowreader]

26. There is also a mold-resistant paper-faced drywall

Its face paper is purple.

The other problem with steel framing in residential construction is the precision with which one must work. If you need to cut ten studs to length to hold up a large window, say, each of those ten studs must be exactly the same length. If they're not, the whole weight of the window is being supported not by the studs but by the screws fastening the studs to the top and bottom plates.

In Florida there should be (but is not) a code requiring all framing lumber be pressure-treated with a borate preservative. They make this treatment by dissolving boric acid in water. Boric acid's perfectly safe for humans--there are several diseases that are treated with it--but it's death on bugs and molds.

[tosh]

20. Because rust never sleeps.

In fact, in most of Florida, it parties all night, every night.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

7. Sounds like they bought a marijuana grow house,

[AwakeAtLast]

11. Couldn't they sue the inspectors?

If you put your stamp of approval on something you should have to back it up.

[madfloridian]

12. Looks like the inspection company has no insurance.

Which is suspicious right there. I don't know the answer.

[malaise]

13. They will soon ask this question

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7904070

delete letter

[Sancho]

14. We've bought in 3 southern states, and FL is buyer beware!

I'm not as surprised by the Garrisons as you may think. When we moved here, a "buyers" realtor that we hired warned us about inspectors and termite policies and things. We had several inspections and got wildly different reports on some places we examined. Also wildly different appraisals. Don't buy unless you have inspections with a long-term company that is on the consumer lists (Angie's etc.). You can sometimes get warranties for termites, mold, etc. - but it is expensive. Worth it for the first five years you own the house. You also have to watch out for insurance that doesn't cover sink holes, and a host of "exceptions".

We actually had a foundation crack and got $40,000 in repairs done by the insurance company about 7 years after owning a house, but we had an engineering firm inspection and survey in hand! After that, the fight was between the engineers who inspected and the insurance company (which didn't matter to us). The insurance company left the state (along with most others) during the Jeb days, but they fixed the house. It was interesting that the house was 20 years old when the cracks appeared. Florida is one big sand hill, and houses just float on the sand.

New housing here is a complete mess - lots of permit and impact fees, no one is accountable for anything, the quality is often terrible. Florida licensing and insurance has paid off the legislature, so it's a shell and there is no real enforcement.

[JCMach1]

15. I remember my dad watching the builders like a hawk when we built our home in the 1970's

He finished out the insides himself and with the help of friends.

I can still see him checking everything with the level and calling them on it when they cut corners.

So yeah, it was bad even 30 years ago in Florida. It doesn't shock me at all.

Water and moisture are a home's enemies in Florida. If you don't get that right, you might as well give in. OR, build with concrete block.

[Xithras]

18. All homebuyers should find out if their insurance offers riders for rot, mold, etc.

Base policies never cover it, but some insurers will offer riders at additional cost to cover everything from mold and fungus to dry rot and pest damage. They are expensive, but EVERY homebuyer should have them for at least the first 5 years of home ownership, if the house isn't otherwise covered under a comprehensive warranty.

Back when I bought my first house, my dad put it to me this way: All homes start deteriorating the day they're built, and the difference between a house that last 20 years and a house that lasts 200 years is a combination of luck and maintenance. If you're buying an existing home, you have no control of either and no idea how much it has deteriorated since it was built. Inspections are important, but no inspector can find everything. There will ALWAYS be a problem, somewhere, that was missed. In the years, and multiple home purchases since, he's been proven right over and over. I've never met ANYBODY who has bought an existing home who didn't end up having to replace or repair something that they weren't expecting.

If the house has a serious problem, you'll discover it in the first 5 years. Maintaining insurance riders long enough to protect against those discoveries is just common sense. It WILL cost you a bit of money, but I'd bet the people in this article would tell you that it's cheap insurance against a disaster like they're experiencing.

[BrklynLiberal]

19. Heartbreaking...just heartbreaking...

[MattBaggins]

21. What about the inspections?

Aren't the original inspections as the property was built a matter of record? Some one was either very sloppy or getting paid on the side. They should be taking the county to court for allowing this to happen.

[JDPriestly]

22. Read The Orchid Thief.

Much of Florida was built on drained swamps. Guess what. Swamps are damp places, wet places, not fit for building houses. I don't know that this house was built on a drained swamp, but if it was, the neighbors' houses probably have the same problem.

[Dappleganger]

29. Pretty much our entire area is a drained swamp.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out when the rains come. It doesn't help that FL is mostly flat, either. The water has to go somewhere.

[Blue_Tires]

23. damn...that long of a story and not one word about who actually built that shit?

and i use the word 'built' loosely


i hate being one of those 'blame the victim' types, but this is a common occurrence, especially in the south with its lax building, inspection and development regs...knowing recent history, you have GOT to be super-extra cautious about buying a slapped-together suburban McMansion in these newer developments...

[DirkGently]

24. If the inspector can afford that attorney

... he can afford to pay damages. Gray Robinson doesn't come cheap.

Sounds like typical horrible housing-boom construction. Plenty of that here in Florida. Better building codes would be a start. Just not letting developers treat the entire state like their personal playground would be more to the point.

And consumers can help, by, say, not buying crappy McMansions. Insisting on quality over square footage. Not buying into these horrible, barren, zero-lot-line nightmares springing up along every highway.

[Edweird]

25. That's what 'race to the bottom' labor gets you.

[WatchWhatISay]

27. Who was the builder?

Has anybody noticed that everyone except the builders name is given in this article. I don't think that happened by mistake.

[Dappleganger]

28. This is why we bought a block house built on a slab in FL with metal studs.

But even that doesn't guarantee against mold or improper drainage, etc.

We have friends in a nearby neighborhood who had mold develop in their house--they had dealt with migraines for over a year before discovering it. They had to rent another home and have most of the drywall, flooring, etc. ripped out and re-done. It was a HUGE nightmare.

IMO nothing down here should be made out of wood, NOTHING.

[KG]

30. surprised to see this is a frame house with wood floors and a crawl space.

a very bad idea in FL. that's just begging to have water damaged wood and termites under the house.

i'll bet the architect was a guy from up north, where this kind design works better.